Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat, lebih baik kami menulis usulan tertulis dan menyerahkannya ke pengadilan siswa. - Rather than just complaining in the chat group, it is better we write a written proposal and submit it to the student court.

Daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat
= Instead of just complaining in the group chat
lebih baik kami menulis ...
= it’s better (for us) to write ...

This is a very common way to give a suggestion or recommendation in Indonesian.

Why is there a comma after grup chat?

The part starting with Daripada is an introductory clause:

Daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat,
= Instead of just complaining in the group chat,

Then the main clause follows:

lebih baik kami menulis usulan tertulis ...

Putting a comma here is the normal way to separate the “instead of …” clause from the main “it’s better if …” clause.

You could also move the daripada-clause to the end:

Lebih baik kami menulis usulan tertulis dan menyerahkannya ke pengadilan siswa daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat.

This is also natural, and you would usually not put a comma in that version.

What nuance does hanya add? Could we just say Daripada mengeluh di grup chat?

Hanya means “only / just”.

mengeluh = to complain
hanya mengeluh = to just complain, only complain (and not do anything else)

So:

Daripada mengeluh di grup chat
= Instead of complaining in the group chat
Daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat
= Instead of just complaining in the group chat (without taking real action)

Without hanya, the sentence is still correct and natural, but you lose the nuance that complaining is being contrasted with taking more constructive action. Hanya emphasizes that complaining alone is unproductive.

What is the role of lebih baik here? How is it different from sebaiknya?

Lebih baik literally means “better / more good”. In this pattern, it works like “it’s better if … / we’d better … / we should rather …”.

Lebih baik kami menulis usulan tertulis ...
= It’s better (for us) to write a written proposal...

Sebaiknya also expresses a recommendation:

Sebaiknya kami menulis usulan tertulis ...
≈ We should / It would be best if we wrote a written proposal...

Differences in nuance:

lebih baik — often used in comparisons, especially with daripada:
- Daripada X, lebih baik Y.
sebaiknya — sounds like general advice, not always explicitly comparing two options.

In this exact sentence, you could say:

Daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat, sebaiknya kami menulis usulan tertulis ...

That’s also acceptable and means almost the same, but daripada … lebih baik … is the most common pairing.

Why is kami used instead of kita?

Indonesian distinguishes between:

kami = we / us (excluding the person spoken to)
kita = we / us (including the person spoken to)

In this sentence:

... lebih baik kami menulis usulan tertulis ...

kami suggests that the speaker is referring to a group that does not include the listener. For example, the speaker might be telling a teacher or a friend about what their class / their group should do.

If the speaker wanted to include the listener in the “we”, they would say:

... lebih baik kita menulis usulan tertulis ...
= it’s better for us (you and I / all of us) to write a written proposal...

Is grup chat standard Indonesian? Are there more “Indonesian” alternatives?

Grup chat is widely used and understood in everyday Indonesian, especially in informal contexts (WhatsApp, Line, Telegram, etc.). It’s basically an English loan phrase with Indonesian spelling for grup.

You might also see:

grup obrolan
grup percakapan
grup ngobrol (very informal)

However, grup chat is extremely common and natural in speech and informal writing. For formal documents, people might choose grup percakapan or just mention the platform, e.g. grup WhatsApp kelas.

Why say menulis usulan tertulis? Isn’t menulis + tertulis redundant?

Literally:

menulis = to write
usulan = proposal / suggestion
tertulis = written

So menulis usulan tertulis is literally “to write a written proposal”, which does sound redundant at first.

However, in natural usage:

usulan tertulis is a common fixed phrase meaning “a written proposal (document)” as opposed to a verbal or informal suggestion.
menulis is the action verb “to write”.

So the phrase emphasizes:

They will prepare a formal written document (not just talk), and
They will do the act of writing it.

Alternatives that are also natural:

lebih baik kami membuat usulan tertulis
lebih baik kami menyusun usulan tertulis

These avoid repeating the idea of “writing” while keeping the formality.

How is menyerahkannya formed, and what does -nya refer to?

Menyerahkannya breaks down as:

serah = base word (to hand over / to submit)
meN-
- serah
  - -kan → menyerahkan = to hand over / to submit something
menyerahkan + -nya → menyerahkannya

The suffix -nya here acts like “it” (or “that thing”) and refers back to usulan tertulis (the written proposal).

So:

menyerahkan = to submit / to hand over
menyerahkannya = to submit it / to hand it over

An explicit version without -nya:

... dan menyerahkan usulan tertulis itu ke pengadilan siswa.
= ... and submit that written proposal to the student court.

Both versions are correct; -nya just avoids repeating usulan tertulis.

Why is it ke pengadilan siswa and not kepada pengadilan siswa?

Both ke and kepada can translate as “to”, but they’re used slightly differently:

ke — primarily for direction / movement to a place:
- pergi ke sekolah = go to school
- mengirim surat ke kantor = send a letter to the office
kepada — for direction towards a recipient (usually a person or institution):
- mengungkapkan rasa terima kasih kepada guru = express thanks to the teacher
- melaporkan kasus itu kepada polisi = report the case to the police

In practice, with institutions, ke and kepada often overlap. In this sentence:

menyerahkannya ke pengadilan siswa
treats pengadilan siswa a bit like a destination place (the office/body where you submit it).

You could also say:

menyerahkannya kepada pengadilan siswa

That sounds slightly more formal and emphasizes the institution as a recipient, but both are acceptable.

What exactly is pengadilan siswa? Is it a standard term?

Pengadilan siswa is a compound noun:

pengadilan = court (as in law court)
siswa = student (usually primary/secondary school student)

So pengadilan siswa literally means “student court” — some kind of school-level court or disciplinary body run by/for students.

Depending on the context and the school system, more common terms could be:

dewan siswa = student council/board
organisasi siswa = student organization
komite disiplin siswa = student disciplinary committee

If this is a high-school context and the students are older (like university students), you might see:

pengadilan mahasiswa (student court at university level)

The phrase is understandable; whether it’s “standard” depends on whether such a body actually exists in that particular institution.

What tense is this sentence in? How would I say “we wrote” in the past?

Indonesian does not mark tense with verb changes like English does. The same verb form works for past, present, or future; context (or time words) tells you when it happens.

In this sentence:

Daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat, lebih baik kami menulis usulan tertulis dan menyerahkannya ke pengadilan siswa.

Possible interpretations, depending on context:

“Instead of just complaining ..., it’s better if we write a written proposal...” (suggestion about the future)
“Instead of just complaining ..., we’d better write a written proposal...”

To make it clearly past, you’d add a time adverb:

Kemarin, daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat, kami menulis usulan tertulis dan menyerahkannya ke pengadilan siswa.
= Yesterday, instead of just complaining in the group chat, we wrote a written proposal and submitted it to the student court.

The verb forms menulis and menyerahkannya don’t change; kemarin (yesterday) marks the time.

Can I rearrange it to Kami lebih baik menulis usulan tertulis ... daripada hanya mengeluh ...? Is that natural?

Yes, this word order is also natural:

Kami lebih baik menulis usulan tertulis dan menyerahkannya ke pengadilan siswa daripada hanya mengeluh di grup chat.

Meaning stays the same:

“We’d be better off writing a written proposal and submitting it to the student court rather than just complaining in the group chat.”

Two common patterns are:

Daripada X, lebih baik Y.
Y lebih baik ... daripada X.

Both are grammatical and widely used; the choice is mostly about emphasis and style. Putting daripada at the start can highlight the “bad option” (complaining) first.

What’s the difference between mengeluh and using the English loan komplain?

Both are used, but they have different flavors:

mengeluh = to complain, to grumble, to express dissatisfaction
- Pure Indonesian word
- Neutral; suitable in both formal and informal contexts
komplain (or mengomplain) = to complain
- Loan from English “complain”
- Often feels more casual / colloquial
- Very common in spoken Indonesian and informal writing

In this sentence, mengeluh is a good choice: it sounds neutral and works in semi-formal or written contexts.

An informal variant could be:

Daripada cuma komplain di grup chat, ...

Here cuma komplain is very casual, like “just complain” in everyday speech.