Jarak penglihatan rendah; jangankan memandu, papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat.

Literally, jarak means distance and penglihatan means vision / sight / visibility. So jarak penglihatan is literally distance of visibility or viewing distance.

This is a very normal Malay noun phrase pattern:

• jarak = distance
• penglihatan = sight, vision, visibility

Malay often puts nouns together like this, where the second noun explains the first. So jarak penglihatan works much like visibility distance in English.

Yes, rendah does mean low, and here it is being used in a natural, idiomatic way.

Malay often uses rendah for levels, amounts, or degrees, even when English might prefer a different adjective. So:

• jarak penglihatan rendah = visibility is low
• more literally = the visibility distance is low

A native English speaker might expect something like short visibility distance, but Malay commonly uses rendah for this kind of idea.

Jangankan is a very useful word that introduces a let alone / never mind / much less kind of comparison.

The pattern is often:

• Jangankan X, Y pun ...

This means something like:

• Let alone X, even Y ...
• Never mind X, Y is already ...

In this sentence:

• Jangankan memandu, papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat.

The idea is:

• Let alone driving, even the diversion signs are hard to see.

So jangankan sets up something harder or more demanding, and then the sentence says that even something simpler is already difficult.

No, memandu can stand on its own and simply mean to drive.

Malay often omits the object when it is obvious from context. So:

• memandu = to drive
• memandu kereta = to drive a car

In a road-safety sentence like this, just memandu sounds perfectly natural because everyone understands that it means driving a vehicle.

Here, pun gives the sense of even.

So:

• papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat = even diversion signs are hard to see

This fits the jangankan ... pun ... pattern very well:

• jangankan X, Y pun ... = let alone X, even Y ...

Important point: this pun is a particle, not the same thing as pun meaning also in every context. Its exact feel depends on the sentence, but here it clearly adds emphasis: even.

Break it down like this:

• papan tanda = signboard / road sign / sign
• lencongan = diversion / detour

So papan tanda lencongan means diversion signs or detour signs.

About lencongan itself:

• it comes from lencong, which has the idea of turning aside or deviating
• -an often forms a noun, so lencongan becomes something like a diversion / a deviation / a detour route

In road contexts, lencongan is a natural word for a diversion or detour.

Because the focus is on the signs being hard to see, not on the person doing the seeing.

• sukar dilihat = hard to be seen / hard to see
• sukar untuk melihat = hard to see

Both can work in some contexts, but they are not exactly the same in focus.

Here:

• papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat

literally has a passive feel:

• even the diversion signs are difficult to be seen

That sounds natural in Malay and is very common in formal or descriptive writing.

Dilihat is the passive form of lihat.

• lihat = see
• melihat = to see
• dilihat = be seen / seen

The prefix di- usually marks a passive verb in standard Malay.

So:

• papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat means
• even the diversion signs are hard to see or more literally
• even the diversion signs are hard to be seen

This kind of passive construction is very common in written Malay.

The semicolon separates two closely related parts:

• Jarak penglihatan rendah
• jangankan memandu, papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat

The first part states the condition: visibility is low.
The second part gives the consequence or emphasis: let alone driving, even the diversion signs are hard to see.

A comma could sometimes appear in looser writing, but the semicolon helps show a stronger division between the two linked ideas.

Malay often leaves things unstated when they are obvious from context.

In English, you might expect something like:

• people find the diversion signs hard to see
• drivers can hardly see the diversion signs

But Malay does not need to say that explicitly here. The passive sukar dilihat lets the sentence focus on the signs themselves, and the understood idea is simply that they are hard for people to see.

It is natural and fairly formal-neutral, especially in contexts like:

• traffic reports
• road warnings
• news writing
• safety notices

A few features make it sound a bit more polished than casual speech:

• jarak penglihatan
• jangankan ... pun ...
• sukar dilihat

In everyday conversation, someone might say something simpler, but this sentence is very normal for written or informative Malay.

Yes, but the tone changes a little.

• sukar = difficult; slightly more formal or standard in written style
• susah = difficult / troublesome; more conversational in many contexts

So:

• papan tanda lencongan pun sukar dilihat sounds neat and standard
• papan tanda lencongan pun susah dilihat is understandable and natural too, but a bit less formal

In a road-safety or report-style sentence, sukar is a very good choice.

The pattern is:

• jangankan + harder/more extreme thing, even + lesser thing + pun + statement

In this sentence:

• harder thing: memandu = driving
• lesser thing: papan tanda lencongan = diversion signs
• statement: sukar dilihat = hard to see

So the logic is:

• If even the diversion signs are hard to see, then driving is obviously even more difficult.

That is exactly the kind of contrast jangankan ... pun ... is used to express.