Bahasa Korporat: A Glossary of Malaysian Office Deflection

Every Malaysian who has worked in an office knows this language. Corporate, government, startup, GLC, it doesn't matter. You've been stuck behind one of these phrases. They're not corporate jargon translated from English. They're their own register, grown from 50 years of office hierarchy, government-agency email culture, and a society that's been trained from primary school to avoid saying "no" to someone's face.

You can't find these in a corporate jargon dictionary. You won't see "takda masalah" on an MBA syllabus. But if you've ever watched a decision evaporate in real time, or waited six weeks for a reply that never came, you already know them by heart.

Here's the field guide.

⏳ Time deflection

The phrases that make deadlines optional.

"Tengah dalam proses" (in the process). What the "process" is, is never specified. Could mean the form is on someone's desk. Could mean your request was printed, filed in a drawer in 2019, and forgotten. It's Schrödinger's workflow: the task is simultaneously in progress and not started, and you cannot know which until you escalate.

"Belum ada keputusan" (no decision yet). The decision will never come, because nobody with the authority to decide has been asked. You'll hear this from middle managers who've been sitting on your request for two months. Their solution: pretend to still be waiting for someone higher.

"Sambung selepas raya" (continue after Raya). The most Malaysian of all deflection phrases. Applies to Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, school holidays, the monsoon season, and any week where more than 20% of the office might be on leave. In practice, "selepas raya" stretches forward into perpetuity. Today's "selepas raya" becomes next quarter's "selepas raya" becomes next year's "selepas raya".

"Bila ada masa" (when there's time). There is no time. There will never be time. The speaker is telling you, politely, that this task has been placed in a mental drawer marked "things that will not happen unless you chase me five times."

👔 Authority deflection

Passing the buck, gently.

"Boss cakap" (the boss said). The safest deflection phrase in any Malaysian office, because it converts any disagreement into "you're arguing with the boss, not me." Whether the boss actually said it is irrelevant. The invocation is the shield. Bonus points if the boss is on leave and unreachable.

"Ikut SOP" (follow the SOP). Standard Operating Procedure. The SOP is almost never shown. It exists in the same mythical filing cabinet as "tengah dalam proses". When someone says "ikut SOP", what they often mean is "I don't want to do this, and I'm hoping the word 'SOP' makes you stop asking."

"Kena tunggu approval" (have to wait for approval). The approval is always from someone more senior, always unavailable, always "in a meeting." This phrase is especially beloved in government and GLC offices where the approval chain contains seven layers and, at any given time, three of them are on leave.

🤝 Commitment deflection

Promises that commit to nothing.

"Akan maklumkan" (will inform). The future is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Sometime, could be tomorrow, could be in the next financial year, you will be informed. The phrase commits to nothing except that something will happen later. It's the verbal equivalent of filing a document in a cabinet you'll never open again.

"Confirm je" (confirmed, trust me). A phrase offered with total certainty about something the speaker has absolutely no authority to confirm. The more emphatic the "confirm," the less reliable it is. When someone in a WhatsApp group says "confirm je boss, 3pm tomorrow", book nothing on the assumption.

"On the way" ("OTW"). The universal lie of Malaysian office culture. The person saying "OTW" is, statistically, still at home in their pyjamas. "OTW" exists in its own time zone where 10 minutes becomes 45 minutes becomes "traffic teruk bro".

🫥 Problem deflection

How we agree there's nothing to discuss.

"Takda masalah" (no problem). This almost always means there IS a problem, and you're about to find out about it later, indirectly, through someone else's email. Depending on tone, it can mean anything from "I don't want to say no in front of you" to "I am making a mental note of this and you will hear about it in three weeks." The safest interpretation is always the most cynical.

"Biasa je" (it's normal). Used to dismiss any complaint, however legitimate, by normalising it. Overtime three weeks running? Biasa je. KPI impossible to hit? Biasa je. Boss forgetting your leave request? Biasa je. The phrase is a conversational airbag. It absorbs the impact of any concern you raise and deposits you back exactly where you started.

How to escape this language

You can't, really. These phrases exist because the culture needs them. They're the lubricant that lets Malaysian office hierarchy function without constant face-threatening confrontation. Trying to replace them with "directness" only makes you the person everyone complains about in the WhatsApp group.

What you CAN do is recognise the pattern fast enough to adjust. If your boss says "takda masalah" and immediately looks at their phone, you don't have approval. You have plausible deniability. If HR says "akan maklumkan", put the ball back in their court in writing with a deadline. If anyone says "sambung selepas raya", just accept it's gone until at least the next fiscal year.

And if you ever need to deliver the same kind of message yourself (polite on the surface, non-committal underneath), that's what Keparat is for.