Of course, there is no such thing as "Asianness". The very word "Asia" was a European invention. It never occurred to the peoples living in it that they constituted a single entity.

Donald Horne in 1995 tried to speak sense amid the nonsense: "Anyone who thinks there is a cultural unity in 'Asia' of any kind at all should try imagining Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists, Christians, Jews and Shamanists getting together in a religious service."

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As for "Asian values", it was merely a cover story to excuse the authoritarian tendencies of Lee and Mahathir. The story fell apart as the number of successful Asian democracies grew to include South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, as well as Japan.

And the "poor white trash of Asia"? Two decades after Lee issued this famous augury, Australia's treasurer, Peter Costello, entertained him at a private dinner. He asked Lee for an update. "You have changed," he replied. "Your country is a different place now."

And now Mahathir, too, is recanting. In an interview with my colleague James Massola on the weekend, the once and once again prime minister of Malaysia said: "Australia has been undergoing many changes, there was a White Australian policy where they don’t allow Asians to settle down there. That was discarded and now they allow a lot Asians who stay in Australia, who become Australian citizens, taking part in politics for example.

"The number, of course, at the time when I was talking before was quite small, but now the number has become very big."

So Australia is part of Asia, Massola asked? "Now I think it is moving in that direction by force of circumstance," said Mahathir, now 94.

"Whatever white Australians might think of it, the fact is geographically they are more in the Asian region than in Europe. They can try and sustain their culture, their language, but the inflow of Asians into Australia will certainly change the character and distribution of population in Australia. And in the future, they are going to be more Asian than European."

Three elements stand out. First, he has changed his position. Second, there is sophistry in his implication that Australia's geography has changed somehow since his comments in the 90s.

Third is the flat-out misrepresentation that the inflow of Asian people is occurring against Australia's will. Who's he kidding? It's a deliberate decision under Australia's immigration policy. And each new generation of immigrants enriches Australia but also becomes Australian.

The sad fact is that Mahathir cannot conceive of a non-discriminatory immigration policy like Australia's. Because Mahathir is a racist who can only see the world in racial terms.

In his first long iteration as prime minister he created a system of economic apartheid – his bumiputera policy – that reserved a range of privileges for Malays over the Chinese and Indian populations of Malaysia.

And he told Massola that the failure of this policy was his greatest regret: "I spent a lot of time trying to bring up the Malaysians so that they can catch up so at least they’re not too far behind the Chinese. But I failed." Racial engineering doesn't work, it turns out.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has said that Australia should be admitted to join the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations, ASEAN. Now Mahathir says he thinks that "it will happen" eventually.

The international adviser to prime minister Paul Keating at the time of the biggest bust-up between Australia and Malaysia was Allan Gyngell: "The substance of Australia's earlier dispute with him was that we wanted to be embedded in the regional institutions and he didn't want us.

"In the 1990s Mahathir was trying to achieve a balance then against the overwhelming dominance of the US, and it was easier if you put all the Asians onto one side of it. But the balance of power has changed." Now countries are seeking to balance against the "overwhelmingly powerful force" that China has become, says Gyngell, and everyone is repositioning.

As for the "Asian Way", Gyngell observes that "there are Asian ways – not one Asian Way". And Australia has its own way. Indeed, the metaphor for Australia today, prosperous and multicultural and enjoying the best of all possible worlds, is not the misfit bat.

If anything it's more like the platypus. A unique creature, with features of a mammal and a bird, combining features of each, and perfectly adapted to its ecology.

Peter Hartcher is international editor.