[Opinion] `Because of Osama Bin Laden`

`I did my homework but the dog ate it.`

American news media poked fun at businesses for continuing to blame the terrorist attacks for falling performance. As economy began to decline and made businesses nervous, the terrorist attack came like a godsend and gave them the `Osama Bin Laden card` to ward off the stockholders.

When looking at the 3-4 quarter (July to September), the timeframe of the economic impact of September 11 takes up only about 20 days. The childish excuse that businesses are using is logically absurd but they hope that the stockholders are in too much a shock to really notice.

This, of course, does not apply just to American corporations. There are many policy makers around us who are using the attacks as a scapegoat for economic stagnation. At every opportunity they say, ``Our economic `harvest` is ruined this year because of the terrorist attacks.`` which gives off the impression that they are thinking ``Our administration is really luck to have this to use as an excuse.`` The administration has been repeating the words `The economy will recover by the next quarter` like a parrot for time immemorial and made everyone wonder how the year would actually end. That question has been clearly answered after this well-timed crisis happened.

After the U.S. began the war, the administration announced that it would take several emergency measures using as its premise the potential explosion of oil prices and a possible crisis in the financial market. Although this put many people ill at ease, it felt inappropriate to criticize the administration at the time. The people who talked as if the economy would come to an end if the war became protracted sealed their lips when the oil prices went down and the New York stock exchange recovered.

This is not to say that we should be careless, nor is it to blindly criticize the people in charge of running the country in a time when anything can happen. It is only to say that the administration would have taken a different course of action if the intention were not to blame Bin Laden for everything.

The administration`s plan was to reduce interest rates after making everyone nervous and holding an emergency meeting. The plan, of course, did little to improve the situation except to create discord between the administration and Korea Bank. And what about the exaggerated stock market support plan? Although we felt it coming when the President advocated `stock gathering,` the rush to implement the support plan makes it look like the administration is initiating some huge project to fabricate stock prices. If Shakespeare was right in saying `the son will be punished for his father`s crime,` the current state of things makes us worry about the welfare of the future generation.

Is Bin Laden or the world economy the only things responsible for our present recession? The biggest problem with the economy is its instability. Yet, not only does the administration refrain from fixing the problem, but it actually exacerbates it, making economic recovery a more distant dream.

If the administration is raising hell all over the place, making enemies all over, splitting the society into factions, it is only natural that the opposition forces will look at the future as an uncertain question mark. The grandiose gestures of reconciliation and promise of cooperation between the South and North in the end only gave the people a sense of betrayal and largely contributed to creating ideological confusion and insecurity. When there are complaints that the policy has lost its coherence, that the administration controls businesses with its administrative power rather than legal right, that the social status achieved by hard work is not respected, then there can be no assurance in the future.

It is more urgent to eliminate the insecurity than Bin Laden for this administration which mass produces negative policy and foments instability. If the administration fails to address the root causes of the problem, symptomatic treatments like emergency plans for the economy will only look like shallow excuses.

Lee Kyu-Min kyumlee@donga.com