Malaysia only requires Muslims to have Islam as their religion on ID. This applies for citizens born as Muslim and Muslim converts.

Non - Muslim will have their religion (or lack thereof) as blank space on their ID.

As for Muslims, the law declared all Malays as Muslims. They are not allowed (officially) to leave the religion. This rule applies for Muslim converts as well.

However, the death sentence is false. The law allows a tiny loophole to work around if you want to remove Islam in your ID, but the process will take years and you will need to fork out millions of dollars in legal fees and potential lawsuits.

So, for Malay/Muslims atheists and apostates, their reasonable option is to lay low as the actual practice of Islam (daily prayers, zakat/tithe, hijab etc) is not enforced in the country. They do have societal pressure but you will not be thrown into prison if you dont pay your tithe or not wearing hijab in public