PETALING JAYA: Young Eka Hafeez may only be 11 years old, but he definitely knows how to keep audiences enraptured.
On TikTok, where he speaks candidly on everything from world history to facts about flags, his videos are hugely popular. Some have even gained millions of views!
The young man’s fluency in English, combined with his confident manner of speaking, smooth accent, and historical knowledge have earned him many fans online.
Eka’s most popular TikTok video so far, “Bebel tak puas hati”, sees the precocious lad “complaining” about the education syllabus of his mother’s time.
His sincere yet hilarious reactions, coupled with his articulate speech, resulted in this video being viewed over 2.4 million times, and liked over 135,000 times.
In another series of videos, Eka recites facts about the history of Malaysia, touching on the invasion of old Melaka and going all the way to the formation of Malaysia in 1963. “Better explanation than my history teacher” is a common comment from many netizens on these videos.
Hearing how well he speaks English, one might assume Eka spent a lot of time in a western country, but this is untrue. The Selangor-born Eka and his siblings were all drilled in the language from a young age, courtesy of their mother, Nooraziyan Abd Rahman.
As for his distinct matter of speech, believe it or not, Eka actually picked it up from educational videos and game streams on the internet.
“Hearing him speak like this was a great surprise, because we don’t even speak English at home, we speak Malay,” said Eka’s father, music producer Hafeez As’ad Azam.
“I think it started during the time of the movement control order. There was a lot of online learning, so I got my children a PC. They started watching YouTube videos and picking up on the accents.”
According to Hafeez and Nooraziyan, they had no intention of turning their son into a video star. It was Eka’s aunt, who lives with them and enjoys taking videos of her family to share with relatives in Tawau, Sabah.
One night, she uploaded a video that featured Eka speaking about Malaysian history. It unexpectedly went viral, receiving thousands of views overnight.
“We have been making videos of our family for years now. We’re not quite sure why this particular one suddenly became popular, it’s quite surprising to me. Maybe it has something to do with a lot of people using TikTok now,” said Nooraziyan, a former accounts executive turned homemaker.
As for how Eka became interested in history, Hafeez chalks it up to their habit of taking family trips, where he would often explain the stories behind the places they visited.
The eldest of four children, Eka comes across as a cheerful, well-adjusted typical Malaysian kid. When he’s not making videos, he enjoys playing a game of chess, cycling and fooling around with his siblings. His favourite subject in his school in Sri Kembangan, no prizes for guessing, is history.
In person, Eka is as well-spoken and energetic as he appears in his videos, albeit a little shyer than expected. Then again, perhaps this was due to the presence of strangers.
In front of the camera, he is in his element, happily reciting facts about the Cold War or the colonisation of Melaka with aplomb.
“I feel excited making these videos. A bit nervous but… no, not really,” Eka told FMT Lifestyle with a laugh.
Being thrust into the limelight can sometimes be overwhelming, but the young TikTok performer is enjoying things as they come.
“The experience has been very interesting. People send me messages on social media, asking for tips on how to train their children to speak. Some ask me what I ate to make my son so knowledgeable,” Nooraziyan said.
“Now, I’m just very happy for my son. His teachers have always liked him, they said he is talented, and I’m glad the world can recognise it. His friends all call him ‘Famous Boy’.”
Might Eka consider going into hosting, acting, or some other career that involved speaking? It all depends, his father replied. No option was out of the question, but like most caring parents, their priority is for their son to first complete his studies.
Whatever Eka wants to do in the future, Hafiz said he and his wife would support him. And asked about his ambition, Eka gleefully replied he was interested in robotics.
“I first started to like robotics because of a game called ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’, which has killer robots! My school had a robotics camp, and I signed up and learnt a lot. Being a robotics engineer seems like it would be very interesting,” Eka said.
Whatever path he ends up taking, here’s wishing this bright young lad all the best of luck.
Follow Eka on TikTok.