Mereka tidak memilih milikan tunggal; sebaliknya, mereka memperbadankan syarikat itu.

Here, milikan tunggal refers to a sole proprietorship or sole ownership in a business sense.

A native English speaker may expect a more literal structure, but in Malay, business terms are often expressed as noun phrases like this:

• milikan = ownership / possession
• tunggal = single / sole

So together, it means a business owned by one person. In real-world usage, you may also see related expressions such as:

• pemilikan tunggal
• perniagaan milikan tunggal

All of these point to the idea of a sole proprietorship.

In Malay, tidak is the normal negator used before verbs and adjectives.

So:

• mereka memilih = they chose
• mereka tidak memilih = they did not choose

This is the standard pattern:

• Subject + tidak + verb

You would not normally say memilih tidak for this meaning.

A useful comparison:

• tidak negates verbs and adjectives
• bukan usually negates nouns or identifies something as not something

So in this sentence, tidak is correct because memilih is a verb.

It is repeated because the sentence has two coordinated clauses:

• Mereka tidak memilih milikan tunggal
• sebaliknya, mereka memperbadankan syarikat itu

Repeating mereka makes the second clause clear and complete. This is very natural in Malay, especially in more careful or formal writing.

Could it be omitted? Sometimes, in context, yes:

• Mereka tidak memilih milikan tunggal; sebaliknya, memperbadankan syarikat itu.

But that version sounds less balanced and less polished. Repeating the subject is the safer and more natural choice here.

Sebaliknya means instead, rather, or sometimes on the contrary / conversely, depending on context.

In this sentence, the best sense is instead:

• They did not choose X; instead, they did Y.

It signals a contrast between two alternatives.

Common uses:

• Dia tidak pergi ke Kuala Lumpur; sebaliknya, dia tinggal di Johor. = He did not go to Kuala Lumpur; instead, he stayed in Johor.

So here, sebaliknya introduces the contrasting decision.

Memperbadankan means to incorporate, especially in the legal/business sense of forming a company as a corporation.

It is a derived verb with affixes, which is very common in formal Malay. Malay often builds more specific meanings by adding prefixes and suffixes to a root.

You do not need to fully analyze it every time, but it helps to know that:

• formal/business Malay often uses longer affixed verbs
• these verbs can correspond to single English legal terms like incorporate, formalize, authorize, etc.

So although memperbadankan looks complex, functionally it is just the main verb meaning to incorporate.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In Malay, itu comes after the noun:

• syarikat itu = that company or the company

Malay does not have articles like the or a, so words like itu often help make a noun definite.

In many translations, syarikat itu will naturally become:

• the company

If the speaker is pointing to a specific company in contrast with others, it may feel more like:

• that company

So itu marks the noun as specific and known in context.

Because in Malay, demonstratives usually come after the noun.

So:

• syarikat ini = this company
• syarikat itu = that company / the company

This is normal Malay word order. English puts demonstratives before the noun, but Malay places them after it.

More examples:

• buku itu = that book / the book
• rumah ini = this house

More or less, yes.

The semicolon here links two closely related clauses:

• they did not choose one option
• instead, they chose another

So:

• Mereka tidak memilih milikan tunggal; sebaliknya, mereka memperbadankan syarikat itu.

This is similar to formal English punctuation. In less formal writing, a full stop or even a comma may appear, but the semicolon is a neat way to show a strong connection between the two contrasting clauses.

Yes, it sounds fairly formal, especially because of words like:

• milikan tunggal
• sebaliknya
• memperbadankan

This is the kind of Malay you might see in:

• business writing
• legal or administrative contexts
• textbooks
• formal explanations

In casual everyday speech, a speaker might choose simpler wording, but this sentence is perfectly natural in a formal or professional setting.

Yes, Malay could use a passive structure, but this sentence is in the active voice.

Active:

• mereka memperbadankan syarikat itu = they incorporated the company

A passive version might be:

• syarikat itu diperbadankan oleh mereka = the company was incorporated by them

Malay uses both active and passive structures, but the active version here is more straightforward and natural if the focus is on what they decided to do.

Because Malay does not use articles like English a, an, and the.

So milikan tunggal can mean:

• a sole proprietorship
• sole proprietorship
• the sole proprietorship

The exact English article depends on context and translation style.

That is why learners often feel something is missing, but in Malay, nothing is missing. The noun phrase is complete without an article.

Yes, but the given position is the most natural and clear for this kind of contrast.

Current version:

• ...; sebaliknya, mereka memperbadankan syarikat itu.

This works well because sebaliknya introduces the entire second clause.

You may sometimes see other word orders in real usage, but placing sebaliknya at the start of the contrasting clause is standard and easy to understand.

The sentence follows a very common Malay pattern:

Clause 1

• Mereka = subject
• tidak = negation
• memilih = verb
• milikan tunggal = object/complement

Clause 2

• sebaliknya = contrast marker
• mereka = subject
• memperbadankan = verb
• syarikat itu = object

So the overall structure is:

Subject + negator + verb + object; contrast marker + subject + verb + object

That is a very useful pattern for expressing not X, but instead Y in Malay.