Saya bukan sahaja melihat lelaki itu dari balkoni, malah saya juga menjadi saksi ketika polis tiba.

It is a correlative structure meaning not only ... but also ...

So:

• bukan sahaja melihat lelaki itu dari balkoni = not only saw the man from the balcony
• malah saya juga menjadi saksi = but I also became a witness / was also a witness

A very natural English equivalent is:

• Not only did I see the man from the balcony, I also witnessed the police arriving.

In Malay, malah adds an idea of furthermore, in fact, or what is more.

Because bukan sahaja is a fixed expression.

Malay has two common negatives:

• tidak: usually negates verbs and adjectives
• bukan: usually negates nouns, noun phrases, and is also used in certain set expressions

Even though melihat is a verb, the phrase bukan sahaja is idiomatic and standard. You should learn it as one chunk:

• bukan sahaja ... malah ... juga
• bukan sahaja ... tetapi juga

So this is not just ordinary negation; it is part of the not only ... but also pattern.

sahaja means only or just.

In this sentence, it combines with bukan:

• bukan sahaja = not only

On its own, sahaja can appear in other sentences too:

• Saya mahu air sahaja. = I only want water.

You may also see saja, which is a more informal spelling/pronunciation of sahaja.

Yes. Both are correct.

Two common patterns are:

• bukan sahaja ... malah ...
• bukan sahaja ... tetapi juga ...

In this sentence, malah sounds a bit more emphatic or literary, as if the second idea is an even stronger addition.

So these are both possible:

• Saya bukan sahaja melihat lelaki itu dari balkoni, malah saya juga menjadi saksi ketika polis tiba.
• Saya bukan sahaja melihat lelaki itu dari balkoni, tetapi juga menjadi saksi ketika polis tiba.

Both mean roughly the same thing.

juga means also / too.

In Malay, adverbs like juga often come after the subject or before the part being highlighted. So:

• saya juga menjadi saksi = I also became a witness

This placement is very normal.

You may sometimes see slight variations in word order, but saya juga is one of the most natural patterns.

lelaki itu means that man or the man, depending on context.

• lelaki = man
• itu = that

Malay does not have articles like the or a in the same way English does, so itu is often used to point to a specific person or thing already known in the conversation.

So lelaki itu can feel like:

• that man
• the man

depending on the situation.

Most likely, yes.

• dari = from
• balkoni = balcony

So melihat lelaki itu dari balkoni usually means saw the man from the balcony, with the balcony being the speaker’s viewing position.

Like in English, there can be some structural ambiguity if taken very literally, but the normal interpretation is:

• I was on the balcony, and from there I saw the man.

If you wanted to make that especially clear, Malay could also say:

• Saya melihat lelaki itu ketika saya berada di balkoni.
• Saya melihat lelaki itu dari atas balkoni.

But the original is already natural.

These words are related but not identical.

• melihat = to see / to look at
• nampak = to be visible / to see
• ternampak = to catch sight of / to happen to see

melihat sounds more neutral and deliberate.

• Saya melihat lelaki itu = I saw the man

If the idea were more accidental, Malay might use ternampak:

• Saya ternampak lelaki itu dari balkoni. = I happened to spot the man from the balcony.

So the original sentence presents the seeing more straightforwardly, without emphasizing accident or suddenness.

Yes, it is natural.

Literally:

• menjadi = to become / to be
• saksi = witness

So menjadi saksi literally means to become a witness, but in English the best translation is often simply:

• to be a witness
• to witness something

In context, it suggests the speaker was not just someone who saw the man, but someone who was present and witnessed the later event involving the police.

ketika means when or at the time when.

So:

• ketika polis tiba = when the police arrived

It connects the main clause to the time of the police arrival.

Other words that can sometimes be similar are:

• semasa = during / while
• apabila = when
• bila = when (more informal in many contexts)

In this sentence, ketika sounds natural and slightly more formal/written.

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

So:

• polis tiba literally = police arrived

But in natural English, you would normally say:

• the police arrived

Malay relies more on context than on articles. The sentence is still complete and natural without any equivalent of the.

It is repeated for clarity and balance.

The sentence has two linked actions:

1. Saya ... melihat lelaki itu ...
2. malah saya juga menjadi saksi ...

Repeating saya makes the parallel structure clear and sounds natural, especially in a sentence with not only ... but also logic.

Malay can sometimes omit repeated subjects when the context is obvious, but here the repetition helps the sentence flow neatly.

It sounds neutral to somewhat formal, especially because of words like:

• bukan sahaja
• malah
• ketika
• menjadi saksi

In casual spoken Malay, someone might say it more simply, for example:

• Saya bukan saja nampak lelaki itu dari balkoni, saya juga ada masa polis sampai.

That version is more conversational, while the original sounds more polished and written.

In Malay, polis can refer to:

• the police as a group
• a police officer, depending on context

Here, ketika polis tiba is most naturally understood as:

• when the police arrived

Malay often does not mark plural nouns the way English does, so context tells you whether the meaning is singular or plural.

Yes. Even if the meaning is already clear, it helps to know how flexible the English rendering can be. Natural options include:

• Not only did I see the man from the balcony, but I was also there as a witness when the police arrived.
• I not only saw the man from the balcony, but also witnessed the police arriving.
• Not only did I spot the man from the balcony, I also witnessed the moment the police arrived.

This shows that the Malay structure is stable, but English can phrase it in a few different natural ways.