New Kyrgyz flag

I try to follow Central Asian news, at least broadly speaking. I don't think it's really possible for to ever really understand the politics of a foreign country, especially if you did not grow up in that culture, don't live there, and don't speak the language. But I try to keep up with the five former soviet stans, although they are not covered much in the Western media. 

While my ability to follow politics there is limited, I had heard that Kyrgyzstan suddenly changed its flag at the end of last year. Just now I listened to the Majlis podcast episode about how the change spurred protest, created confusion (apparently the parliament passed one new version of the flag, the cabinet approved a slightly different version, and a third version was hung up in the main square in Bishkek, the capital). I actually have always liked the Kyrgyz flag, so I googled to see how they changed it.

The one on the left is the old flag and the one on the right is the new version that was approved by parliament last month. (The one approved by the cabinet, which the Kyrgyz experts on the podcast said was different than the one approved by parliament looks the same to me. I couldn't find a picture of the one that was raised over the main square in Bishkek)

I have two main impressions: First, WTF?!? that's not much of a change. I don't get why they bothered or why so much hubbub for what looks like minor tinkering with the image while keeping the same overall design. Second, I really do like the old one better. Wavy sun rays are better than pointy ones, and the shanyrak (or whatever the lattice work in the center of a yurt is called in Kyrgyz) looks a lot better in the old version.