Anna Wu chose her words on national education carefully

Anna Wu Hung-yuk knows very well that politics is the art of the possible - and every word counts.

The panel she chaired - the Committee on the Implementation of Moral and National Education - recommended on October 8 that the controversial guidelines for national education be "shelved".

That word was chosen very carefully, as she explained in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post.

Wu said a different word - "withdrawing" the school subject - could not be used because it would effectively stop schools from teaching the lesson.

"To me, that would not be consistent with the autonomy given to schools or the concept of academic freedom," she said.

"It was important to choose a term familiar to the Civil Alliance Against National Education - hence the choice of 'shelving' the curriculum guide," she said. "This was suggested, by friends of the alliance, to be used in place of 'withdrawal' of the subject."

But "shelving" raised the question of whether it was a temporary arrangement, and if the subject could be revived at some point, she said.