Xanana Gusmao is a modest man and candidly says he is not the right person to become the first president of East Timor.
But modesty bears little relationship to reality in the world of politics and especially so when the politics of East Timor are involved.
Mr Gusmao can say what he likes - and he has said several times during his current six-nation Asian tour that he does not want the job - but the final say rests in the hands of the East Timorese, who see him in the same light as Nelson Mandela.
East Timor's independence hero - like South Africa's first black president a former guerilla leader jailed for his part in the fight for self-rule - shrugged his shoulders on Sunday night when confronted with the reality of his situation.
'I'm just not the right man to be the president,' he said emphatically while speaking to the South China Morning Post.
But the question of who would lead East Timor was left open. There is not anyone as obvious as Mr Gusmao.
However there are a number of candidates who, like Mr Gusmao, are members of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), which is now directing the future course of the former Portuguese territory reborn as an independent country.