Those who are promoting Yingluck Shinawatra as the future Prime Minister of Thailand deserve to be roundly condemned!

Filling national leadership positions on the basis of blood ties is a discredited and antiquated practice. National leaders should be chosen on merit, not on the basis of descent. Leadership is about real-world capability and achievement. It is much too important a matter to be determined by the genetic accidents of parentage.

As we know all too well, just because one member of a family is capable and highly regarded does not mean that their blood relatives are similarly endowed. History is littered with the tragic follies of overly ambitious siblings, ruthless cousins and idiot sons.

Guiding the nation in difficult times requires much more than an auspicious surname. It is time for Thailand to move on from the vestiges of patrimonialism.