Where's the white?

Today the kids went to school late. We were watching the live telecast of the funeral procession of Mr Lee Kuan Yew as his casket was moved from Sri Temasek to the Parliament House for the Lying in State. It is a sad week for us in Singapore as we mourn for our founding Prime Minister who had passed away on 23rd March 2015.

The kids were too young to understand our sadness. For the past week, the school teacher had told Bay that Mr Lee was very ill. After Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, the teachers had shared with the class newspaper articles about him what he had done for Singapore. However, Bay is still very much confused while Meimei is totally clueless.

So to them, today is a day where they can play much longer before going to school while the adults glued ourselves to the TV with solemn faces. 

Bay caught a glimpse of the TV while the procession stopped at the Istana.

Bay: Where's the white?
Me: ???

It took me a while to understand his question. The screen was showing the flag on top of the Istana at half mask. It was not a normal Singapore flag. It was a red flag with white crescent moon and stars, the white part of the flag was missing. I must say, Bay is very observant, I didnt notice it at all.

Flag on Istana on 25th March 2015
(Photos from Web)

He went on to questioned me about why the flag has no white part, why they used a different flag, why they didnt use the real Singapore flag, why is there different types on Singapore flag, etc... all of which I couldnt answer. I had no idea. 

"Where's the white?" It is an innocent question from a 5 years and 8 months old boy, on something so obvious for him. Totally no implication of the political party (which is often referred to as the Whites) formed by Mr Lee himself. But I see the irony. 

Anyone knows why the flag on the Istana is different?

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Bay @ 5 years and 8 months