can I delete one of *.py *.pyc *.pyo in /usr/lib/python2.3 ?

[Miernik]

On my Debian GNU/Linux system I have Python 2.3 installed in
/usr/lib/python2.3/ where most Python system files like 

/usr/lib/python2.3/gzip.py
/usr/lib/python2.3/gzip.pyc
/usr/lib/python2.3/gzip.pyo

live, besides of course /usr/bin/python2.3

I noticed that all those files come in three "flavours":
*.py *.pyc *.pyo

Is it possible that only one "flavour" of these files is needed, and I can
delete the remaining two, any my Python installation will still work?

The whole /usr/lib/python2.3/ directory takes up over 15 MB, deleting
two "flavours" would save about 10 MB on my system, and that would help
me much as I am trying to fit my system on a 256 MB SD card, to make it
quiet (hard disks are noisy).

Can I just do 
cd /usr/lib/python2.3/ && rm -rf *.py && rm -rf *.pyc 
for example, and everything will still work as before?

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