Learn Hardcore Malay: Walaupun bos sibuk, dia setia kepada pasukannya dan tidak mengabaikan masalah kecil kami. - Even though the boss is busy, he/she is loyal to the team and does not ignore our small problems.

walaupun and meskipun are generally interchangeable.
sekalipun is similar but can sound slightly stronger or more literary in some contexts.

So you could also say:

Meskipun bos sibuk, dia setia kepada pasukannya…
Sekalipun bos sibuk, dia setia kepada pasukannya… (a bit more formal or emphatic)

All are grammatically correct; walaupun is extremely common in speech and writing.

Why is there a comma after sibuk: Walaupun bos sibuk, dia setia…? Is it required?

The comma reflects natural prosody: you pause after the walaupun-clause.

Pattern: Walaupun [Clause 1], [Clause 2].
English has the same pattern: Although [Clause 1], [Clause 2].

In writing, the comma is standard and recommended, because Clause 2 is the main clause and Clause 1 is a dependent clause.

You might sometimes see it omitted in informal writing, but the version with the comma is the norm and is clearer, especially in longer sentences.

In Walaupun bos sibuk, why don’t we say Walaupun bos itu sibuk or Walaupun dia sibuk?

All of these are possible; they differ in nuance:

Walaupun bos sibuk
- Very natural and common.
- bos is a generic or context-known the boss.
- No demonstrative; it just refers to the boss everyone in the context already knows.
Walaupun bos itu sibuk
- itu = that / the (specific).
- Slightly more explicit: Even though that boss / the boss (in question) is busy…
- Can sound a bit more pointed or specific.
Walaupun dia sibuk
- dia = he / she (gender-neutral).
- You rely entirely on context to know dia refers to the boss.
- Still correct and natural if the person was already introduced.

In your sentence, Walaupun bos sibuk is fully grammatical and sounds very natural in conversation and writing.

Why is it bos sibuk without any word for “is”, like bos adalah sibuk?

Malay does not normally use a verb equivalent to English is/am/are before adjectives.

bos sibuk literally: boss busy → the boss is busy
rumah besar: house big → the house is big
makanan sedap: food tasty → the food is delicious

Words like adalah/ialah are used mostly:

before noun phrases (not simple adjectives):
- Dia adalah seorang doktor. = He/She is a doctor.
for emphasis or in more formal written language.

Bos adalah sibuk is not natural; with adjectives you simply put them after the noun: bos sibuk.

What does dia refer to, and does it show gender like “he” or “she”?

Dia is a third-person singular pronoun meaning he / she (gender-neutral).

In this sentence, dia refers back to bos introduced earlier.
Malay pronouns do not change for gender:
- dia can mean he or she.
- Context tells you which.

So the English translation has to choose he or she, but the Malay does not specify.

You could also explicitly repeat bos:

Walaupun bos sibuk, bos itu setia kepada pasukannya…
This is grammatical but less natural than using dia.

Why is it setia kepada pasukannya and not setia dengan / untuk pasukannya?

The adjective setia (loyal / faithful) typically takes kepada as its preposition when you say who someone is loyal to.

setia kepada suami/isteri = loyal to one’s husband/wife
setia kepada negara = loyal to the country
setia kepada pasukan = loyal to the team

So:

setia kepada pasukannya = loyal to his/her team

Using dengan or untuk here would sound wrong or at least unnatural:

setia dengan pasukannya – not idiomatic
setia untuk pasukannya – incorrect in this meaning

Prepositions in Malay are often collocational: certain adjectives prefer certain prepositions, and setia goes with kepada.

How is pasukannya formed, and what does the suffix -nya mean here?

Pasukannya = pasukan + -nya

pasukan = team / squad
-nya has several functions, but here it works as a 3rd-person possessive:
- pasukannya = his team / her team / their team (depending on context)

So kepada pasukannya ≈ to his/her team.

Compare:

pasukan dia – also his/her team, a bit more colloquial.
pasukannya – slightly more compact; common in both spoken and written Malay.

In many contexts, -nya can also suggest definiteness (the team rather than a team), but here it is clearly possessive.

Why is the negation tidak mengabaikan and not bukan mengabaikan or jangan mengabaikan?

Malay has several common negatives with different uses:

tidak
- Used to negate verbs and adjectives.
- tidak mengabaikan = does not ignore / is not ignoring.
bukan
- Used to negate nouns and to contrast whole ideas.
- Dia bukan doktor. = He/She is not a doctor.
- You would not say bukan mengabaikan in this sentence.
jangan
- Used for negative commands (imperatives):
- Jangan mengabaikan masalah kecil kami. = Don’t ignore our small problems.

Here, we are describing a fact about the boss (what he/she habitually does), not giving a command, so tidak is the correct negator:

dia tidak mengabaikan masalah kecil kami = he/she does not ignore our small problems.

What is the root of mengabaikan, and how is it formed?

The verb mengabaikan is formed from the root abai.

abai ≈ to neglect / to disregard / to ignore
meN- + abai + -kan → mengabaikan

Breakdown:

meN- prefix (here meng-) marks an active transitive verb.
-kan suffix often makes the verb explicitly transitive or adds a “treat as / cause to be / do to something” nuance.

So:

mengabaikan sesuatu = to ignore / neglect something

In your sentence:

mengabaikan masalah kecil kami = to ignore / neglect our small problems.

It’s a formal/neutral verb; in everyday conversation people might also use tak peduli (don’t care about) or buat tak tahu (pretend not to know / deliberately ignore), but mengabaikan is perfectly natural and clear.

Why is it masalah kecil kami and not kami masalah kecil or kecil masalah kami?

Malay word order in noun phrases is generally:

Head noun
Adjectives / descriptors
Possessors / possessive pronouns

So:

masalah (head noun) = problem
kecil (adjective) = small
kami (possessive pronoun) = our

Result: masalah kecil kami = our small problems.

Other orders are incorrect or change the meaning:

kami masalah kecil – ungrammatical as a noun phrase.
kecil masalah kami – sounds like our problem is small but is not a standard structure; you would instead say:
- masalah kami kecil (sentence: our problem is small).

Inside a noun phrase, keep noun + adjective + possessor.

What is the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used here?

Both kami and kita mean we / us, but they differ in inclusiveness:

kami = we (not including you) – exclusive
kita = we (including you) – inclusive

In masalah kecil kami, the speaker is talking about:

our small problems, where “our” excludes the person being spoken to (and often excludes the boss too).

Possibilities:

If the speaker is one of the team members talking about the team’s problems to someone outside the team, kami is correct.
If the intention were our (you and I / we all here) small problems, then kita would be used: masalah kecil kita.

Here, kami suggests a group that the speaker belongs to, but which does not automatically include the listener.

Could I also say Walaupun sibuk, bos setia kepada pasukannya…? Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct and natural, with a slightly different focus.

Walaupun bos sibuk, dia setia kepada pasukannya…
- Fronted clause: Even though the boss is busy
- Then subject dia in the main clause.
Walaupun sibuk, bos setia kepada pasukannya…
- Literally: Even though (he/she is) busy, the boss is loyal to his/her team…
- Here, sakit / sibuk / letih etc. can appear without explicitly repeating the subject in the walaupun-clause; it is understood from context.
- In the main clause, bos is the explicit subject.

Both versions are grammatical. Choice depends on style and what you want to emphasize; many speakers would use either interchangeably in conversation.

What is the overall level of formality of this sentence, and how might it look in more formal Malay?

The given sentence is neutral and natural; it fits everyday spoken Malay and most standard written contexts:

Walaupun bos sibuk, dia setia kepada pasukannya dan tidak mengabaikan masalah kecil kami.

A slightly more formal version might be:

Walaupun ketua sangat sibuk, beliau tetap setia kepada pasukannya dan tidak mengabaikan masalah-masalah kecil kami.

Changes and their effects:

bos → ketua: more formal/neutral (leader / head / chief).
dia → beliau: honorific he/she, often for respected people (e.g., a boss).
sangat sibuk: very busy – adds emphasis.
tetap setia: remains / still loyal – emphasizes constancy.
masalah-masalah kecil: plural marker -‑ (reduplication) = explicitly small problems (more than one).

Your original sentence is already correct and quite standard; the formal version is just stylistically more elevated.