Jakarta: Beleaguered outgoing Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has revealed an unexpected source of inspiration as he fights allegations of insulting Islam: a small clownfish called Nemo.

A week after losing the gubernatorial election to former education minister Anies Baswedan, the maverick governor known to all as Ahok mounted a typically unorthodox and allegorical defence in his blasphemy trial in the North Jakarta District Court.

Former Jakarta governor Basuki ''Ahok'' Tjahaja Purnama. Credit:AP

He told of inviting kindergarten children to watch a scene from the animated film Finding Nemo in his office last April after they asked him: "Why are you going against the current, against everybody?"

"I explained the moral message of the movie," Ahok said. "If you swim upward, you will go into the net. Most fish swim upward. So Nemo must swim against the current. It is the same.