Why did they not complain about half mast for Chavez?

The Herald reports:

The Government’s decision to lower New Zealand flags to mark the death of the King of Saudi Arabia has drawn criticism because of the kingdom’s poor human rights record.

Prime Minister John Key requested the flag on all Government and public buildings – including the Auckland Harbour Bridge and Parliament – be flown at half mast yesterday.

Writer and commentator Hamish Keith hit out at the decision on Twitter, saying; “We are flying flags at half mast in ‘respect’ for a torturing misogynist human rights flaunting autocrat – Je suis un hypocrite.”

The outrage seems to very selective. It is basically near-automatic that we do half mast flags for the death of any current head of state. In 2013 we did it for the death of Hugo Chavez, whose record on human rights was also pretty appalling. It is done not for the person, but for the country.