SHAH ALAM (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) in the Malaysian state of Selangor has started removing all dual language road signs in the city and replace them with ones featuring one language, which is Malay.

"Immediate action has been taken by our officers to remove dual language road signboards in the city," said an MBSA spokesman in a statement on Tuesday (Nov 20).

Removal of signboards will be done in stages and is scheduled to be completed soon, the statement added.

The move follows after Selangor's Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah decreed that all road signs in Shah Alam with Chinese characters be removed and replaced with ones featuring only the national language.

The operation to change the road signboards must be completed by Dec 11.

It was reported on Monday that a photo of a road sign in Pekan Subang with Chinese characters had gone viral on social media, sparking heated comments and debates among many Malaysians.

Most comments on Facebook called for the use of Malay only on all road signs.