On his first few rounds of his ward, he found that Mandarin-speaking residents spoke to his Chinese grassroots leaders rather than to him. But they warmed up noticeably when they realised that he, too, spoke Mandarin.
'You have to accept that people draw some comfort from, and connection to, those who speak the same language as they do,' he said.
First-term MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC Michael Palmer also believes GRCs remain a necessity.
'Until we are 110 per cent sure that we are truly race-blind, that compensation, to ensure the minority does not feel sidelined, is very necessary.'
Making the case for GRCs in Parliament in 1988, then-deputy prime minister Goh Chok Tong said: 'It is make-believe to pretend that race and language do not affect voter preference.'
His concern was that young voters were not aware of the need to return a racially balanced slate of candidates.
He cited former People's Action Party MP S. Chandra Das' experiences when campaigning in Chong Boon in the 1984 General Election.
Mr Das' opponent, the Singapore Democratic Party's Ling How Doong, spoke only Mandarin and Chinese dialects throughout the campaign. He also asked voters in the overwhelmingly Chinese ward if 'that Indian man' had visited them.
Mr Das, the incumbent, won with 56 per cent of the vote. But he told Insight that if he had faced such a contest when he first entered politics in 1980, he would have lost.
'However good the minority candidate, if he is standing for the first time, the chances of winning are very slim,' he said.
'In the past, the party carried us, but today, if you put a new minority candidate, it will be very tough.'
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli was one of only two greenhorn minority candidates to face a contest at the 2006 polls. He did so as a member of the Tampines GRC slate.
He warns that during campaign season, 'racial or religious-based politics can rear its ugly head in that critical short span of time'.
How about an all-Chinese Parliament?
Mr Das believes it remains a real possibility.
'If you have all single seats, you can wake up and find that Parliament is all Chinese. I am convinced it can happen today,' he said.