Dia bilang, “Saya maklum kalau kamu masih ragu-ragu, tapi jangan terlalu lama, nanti waktunya mepet lagi dan semuanya jadi susah.”

Bilang is a very common, natural everyday word for to say.

• Dia bilang = He/She said
• Dia mengatakan = also He/She said, but more neutral or slightly more formal
• Dia berkata = more literary or formal

So dia bilang sounds very normal in conversation. A native speaker would use it all the time.

Because the sentence starts with reported context, then switches to the speaker’s actual words.

• Dia bilang = He/She said
• Inside the quote, that person refers to themself as saya
• And they address the listener as kamu

So the point of view changes:

• narrator’s perspective: dia
• speaker’s own perspective: saya
• person being spoken to: kamu

This is exactly like English:
She said, “I understand if you’re still unsure…”

In this sentence, maklum means something like:

• understanding
• able to understand
• sympathetic about it
• it’s understandable

So Saya maklum kalau kamu masih ragu-ragu means roughly:

• I understand if you’re still hesitant
• I can understand that you’re still unsure
• It’s understandable to me if you still have doubts

It does not mean simple factual knowledge like I know. It has a sense of patience or understanding.

Here kalau means if.

So:

• Saya maklum kalau kamu masih ragu-ragu
  = I understand if you’re still hesitant

This structure is very natural in Indonesian.

A learner may wonder whether bahwa could be used, but bahwa would sound too formal or unnatural here. Kalau is the normal everyday choice in this kind of sentence.

Also, in colloquial Indonesian, kalau can sometimes overlap a little with English that, but in this sentence the if sense is the clearest.

Masih means still.

So:

• ragu-ragu = hesitant / doubtful
• masih ragu-ragu = still hesitant / still unsure

It shows that the feeling is continuing up to now. Without masih, the sentence would just say the person is hesitant, without emphasizing that the hesitation has continued.

This is an example of reduplication.

Both ragu and ragu-ragu relate to doubt or hesitation, but ragu-ragu is extremely common and often sounds more natural when describing a person who feels unsure.

In many cases, reduplication in Indonesian does not mean plural. Here it gives the established adjective hesitant / doubtful / unsure.

So:

• ragu = doubtful
• ragu-ragu = hesitant, unsure, wavering

In everyday speech, ragu-ragu is often the form learners will hear most.

Because Indonesian imperatives often leave out the subject when it is understood.

• jangan = don’t
• terlalu lama = too long

So jangan terlalu lama means:

• don’t take too long
• don’t wait too long

The subject you is understood from context, so kamu does not need to be stated.

If you added kamu, it could sound more explicit:

• tapi kamu jangan terlalu lama

That is possible, but the original version is more natural and concise.

Nanti literally often means later, but in sentences like this it can introduce a warning about a future result.

So here:

• nanti waktunya mepet lagi
  means something like
  otherwise, the timing will get tight again later

This nanti is not just a simple time word. It helps create the sense of:

• later on
• if this continues
• otherwise

So the sentence is warning about a consequence.

Mepet is a very common informal word meaning:

• tight
• pressed
• very close
• near the deadline

So waktunya mepet means:

• the time is tight
• there won’t be much time
• the deadline will be close
• you’ll be pressed for time

This is very natural spoken Indonesian.

A more formal version might use different wording, but mepet is exactly the kind of word people say in everyday conversation.

Lagi here means again.

So:

• waktunya mepet = the time is tight
• waktunya mepet lagi = the time gets tight again

This suggests repetition: maybe the situation has happened before, or there is a risk of ending up in the same problem once more.

Without lagi, the warning would still make sense, but lagi adds the idea of again.

Because this sentence is in a natural spoken style.

• semuanya = everything
• jadi = becomes / ends up being
• susah = difficult / troublesome / a hassle

So semuanya jadi susah means:

• everything becomes difficult
• it all gets harder
• everything ends up being a hassle

A more formal version might be:

• semuanya menjadi sulit

But the original sounds much more conversational and natural in everyday speech.

It is mostly informal to neutral spoken Indonesian.

Signs of that include:

• bilang instead of more formal mengatakan
• tapi instead of tetapi
• mepet, which is informal/colloquial
• jadi susah, which is a very everyday way to speak

At the same time, saya is a polite first-person pronoun, so the sentence is not extremely casual. It sounds like normal, polite conversation rather than slang or very formal writing.

Yes, very natural.

It sounds like someone saying:

• they understand the listener’s hesitation,
• but they are also warning them not to delay too much,
• because time may become tight again,
• and that will make things harder.

That combination of empathy plus gentle pressure is very typical in real conversation, and the wording sounds believable and idiomatic.